Political independence sans economic freedom  

What independence are we going to celebrate tomorrow if more than 40 million of the 112 million Filipinos are living below the poverty line? The Philippines' global competitiveness index rating slipped to its lowest rating in the last five years, according to the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), which ranked our country number 52 out of 64 countries.

The Philippines ranks 13 out of 14 Asia-Pacific economies. This latest series of oil price hikes is bound to exacerbate the situation.

Among the Asian economies, Singapore is the highest at number 5 among 64 economies. It is followed by Hong Kong at seventh place, then Taiwan at eighth place, and China at sixteenth place. The only country in Asia below the Philippines is Mongolia. Therefore, the Philippines economy is below Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Brunei, and even Sri Lanka, that beleaguered nation.

Imagine the Philippines being lower than Bangladesh and Nepal. My God, and we say that we are independent? We import rice, oil, corn, potato, chicken, pork and we call ourselves an agricultural country? We do not have food security, oil security, and if these countries, like Ukraine, are in trouble, we shall all go hungry. You call that independent?

According to the IMD, the Philippine performance declined after the economy slumped by a record 9.6% last year. That was a devastating retrogression never before experienced in the last 20 years. Our country implemented one of the world's longest and widest lockdowns, leaving many workers out of work, pushing small and medium scale businesses to the brink of collapse, and government funds almost totally depleted due to billions spent in "ayuda".

The downfall of the Philippine economy was driven by a confluence of multiple factors, like the poor domestic economic performance, weak international investment, unemployment reaching double digits and overall productivity reaching rock bottom.

The IMD specified that the Philippines' competitive rankings dropped heavily compared to its counterparts. In overall economic performance, the Philippines plunged from number 44 to number 57, a very negative fall that impacted on all other financial and economic indicators.

In government efficiency, the Philippines fell from 48 to 45, and in terms of business efficiency, the country fell from 33rd. Despite its aggressive Build, Build, Build Program, the Philippines remains at the 59th spot among 64 countries in infrastructure ranking.

World Competitive Center Chief Economist Christos Cabollis reported that it was not really the pandemic that brought the Philippines down. What proved to be its undoing was the absence of long-term trends in innovation, digitalization, social nets, health, and other social cohesions.

Chris Nelson, the British Chamber of Commerce Executive Director commented that the Philippines' too long lockdowns ruined its consumer-driven economy, especially in Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, Davao, and other urban centers. The greatest weakness of the Philippines according to IMD is lack of clarity on policy and direction.

And so, the problem here is leadership, not the people. During the most devastating health crisis, we were not led by leaders with vision, foresight, agility, and decisiveness. We have allowed ourselves to be overwhelmed with too many fears that we missed the train, so to say, in the race for economic leaps for our nation and people.

As Shakespeare wrote: "The fault, my dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings". Given these, do we have something to celebrate tomorrow? What independence, what freedom?